YCM Revival Project [locked upon request]

[Durandamon]

Why don't we use the manpower in this little group to do it? What if we all just went to each forum and posted a single post right now? It would take about twenty minutes, but activity would noticeably increase. It has a knock-on effect - if everyone's posting, you want to post too.

 

I myself just posted on my asigned forum, and I plan to post more :)

[Dark]

Huh. Looks like a place where I can make controversial comments about the dying quality of this forum.

 

Username: I don't think my username fits the bill for why you'd need a "username" category in an application.

Why do you want to join?: No particular reason - however, it's definitely not to "revive YCM" or another idyllic goal you guys claim to have. This forum is already almost at rock-bottom.

Rate yourself as a debater out of 10: Dead zero. Maybe one by comparison if you put me up against a complete idiot, but otherwise zero.

How long have you been a member (estimate): A month shy of four years, give or take a few weeks.

Notes: I didn't know I was supposed to take notes.

 

"I think that YCM should be better advertised."

 

Wrong. The influx of members this forum gets is huge - in fact, you'd be surprised at how many people know about this website and use it just for the card maker. The amount of members making accounts has dwindled over time, but the same number of people come here for the website's main function. The problem is that our forum-base isn't captivating - no one wants to stay here and stick around. There are better places to talk about fan-fictions, there are better places to talk about debate topics, and there are better places to encounter friendly and intellectual people.

 

At least for General, there are a few problems: first, the amount of interesting topics being created is at an all-time low. I'm not the best assessment of this because I barely find anything interesting, but I haven't actively taken part in a General thread for literally months. Sometimes we're able to hold a semi-decent discussion about news (Trayvon Martin rings a bell), but eventually people who don't know what they are talking about attempt to comment. That makes me - and, more importantly, others - think that there are much better places to talk about news. Just apply that logic to every single topic discussed in General.

 

"If everyone in this club made two new threads and, I don't know, maybe ten-odd active posts per day, activity would increase instantly."

 

How exactly can you rationalize that such activity is particularly good for this forum? I agree with you wholly that people should try out new fields - new card-makers would keep the section fresh, and I guess the same goes with role-playing and graphics and whatnot. But when you have a whole host of ignorant and downright stupid people attempting to infiltrate real discussions, it tends to be a bit of a turn-off. I'm not saying we control the quality of every single post, but it would help if people were discouraged to post about something unless they are sure they know what they're talking about.

[Nu-Mou Knight]

I was thinking that, in the CC sections, we could create a thread that would function as a short tutorial for newbies. It would outline the basics of each card type, have a link to the "common OCG phrases" thread, etc. Just help control the quality of cards. I know we have a Club down here that seeks to do that, but, honestly, how many of the posters would look down here for that? Also, it'd help if we had a few people willing to aid new cardmakers via PM.

[Durandamon]

I was thinking that, in the CC sections, we could create a thread that would function as a short tutorial for newbies. It would outline the basics of each card type, have a link to the "common OCG phrases" thread, etc. Just help control the quality of cards. I know we have a Club down here that seeks to do that, but, honestly, how many of the posters would look down here for that? Also, it'd help if we had a few people willing to aid new cardmakers via PM.

 

I could make that post, if you guys want me too, and I can ask a mod to sticky it or something.

[Des ＨＥＲＯ]

I am interested in joining.

 

 

Username: destruction hero

 

Why do you want to join?: To revive YCM back to its former glory and to become more active within the community.

 

Rate yourself as a debater out of 10.: 5–7/10 because it varies on the topic and interest.

 

How long have you been a member: 3 years (9^th June 2009) with the occasional Leaving/Returning.

 

Notes: I am mainly interested at the Creative Writing because most of my activeness has been centered on there. I don’t mind whatever position you give me and I will let you decide.

[CinnamonStar]

Username: Cinnamon Star

Why do you want to join?: I'm absolutely terrible in terms of debating, but I enjoy putting out ideas for anything and just sharing thoughts.

Rate yourself as a debater out of 10.: ...1?

How long have you been a member (estimate): 4 years

Notes: I post in General and been considering working on RPs.

 

 

Incase I get accepted, I can understand that the best way to increase activity on a forum is to just go and post something. However, I haven't made a card for years and could name maybe 1 card of the current metagame, if all goes well. So instead of going ahead and wrecking various advanced clauses with something I have no clue about, it would be nice to look things up, which takes times (and I'm semi-active at the moment because of school).

 

Otherwise, you can still make tons of posts in the sections you actually know things about, but I'll admit, sometimes I'm having trouble to see what I could post to contribute. So yeah, I can brainstorm with you guys and work on whatever ideas on activities come up.

 

...but the forum doesn't really look like it's dying to me. As long as Yugioh is around, it seems alright.

[Guest Neo Galaxy]

You can throw me in here, if you like.

 

I've been trying to make a significant effort to boost the activity of the Realistic Cards section by posting lengthy and helpful responses to every single thread posted, which is tedious but I feel like if more people were to pick up on that we could start to re-build an actually competitive and fun card making community once more.

 

But yeah, sign me up or whatever. ^^;

 

Edit: Oh right, member for over five years, former Mod/Super Mod, not great with debating but I can manage, yeah, that's all I got.

[Durandamon]

@Neo Galaxy: Indeed, I think you posted in every thread today, nice job! As for myself, I'll make a thread at least once or twice a day ;)

[Enrise]

You can throw me in here, if you like.

 

I've been trying to make a significant effort to boost the activity of the Realistic Cards section by posting lengthy and helpful responses to every single thread posted, which is tedious but I feel like if more people were to pick up on that we could start to re-build an actually competitive and fun card making community once more.

 

But yeah, sign me up or whatever. ^^;

 

Edit: Oh right, member for over five years, former Mod/Super Mod, not great with debating but I can manage, yeah, that's all I got.

 

And it did quite some wonders.

I never seen RC alive in a while.

 

I see hope growing stronger.

[Guest Neo Galaxy]

It gets quite tedious to keep up with it, especially when people like to post five new threads after I respond to 20, but I think it's working, at least a little, because I'm seeing plenty of people starting to come up with responses. That, and I like to post lengthier reviews that kinda gets members to think about what might be wrong with their card or where there are areas to improve, which generates discussion as well.

 

It looks like we've got a few new members with some real card making potential, too, so it's cool to be able to try and help as much as possible. ^^;

[Alexis Rhodes]

Username:Alexis Rhodes

Why do you want to join?:YCM needs more members.

Rate yourself as a debater out of 10.: 4

How long have you been a member (estimate): August 09 .

Notes:-

I hardly know anyone on YCM any more, anyone I did know has left.

[Guest Strikeman]

Did you forget about me?

 

And Neo, try getting some people from RC to CC. Competition helps a lot.

[Alexis Rhodes]

Of course Striker. Loads of people have changed their name now aswell, I keep going and coming back because nobody I know is on here anymore.

 

The one thing I was to know is why if YCM is still getting a regular amount of new users, because if people are registering then its people staying on YCM that is the problem.

[Brushfire]

Hello everyone.

Username: Brushfire

Why do you want to join?: This place is dead, it makes sense to do something about it, I used to be quite a big name on here. What more reasoning do you need than that?

Rate yourself as a debater out of 10.: I have no idea. I'll go for a solid 8.5.

How long have you been a member (estimate): Erm, about 4 years? I can check. Yeah, four and a half years.

Notes: I often post in Anime, Movies and General. I can post a bit more in Literature and Music too though.

 

Huh. Looks like a place where I can make controversial comments about the dying quality of this forum.

 

It is. Oh, and I never hear from you anymore bro, what happened?

 

Username: I don't think my username fits the bill for why you'd need a "username" category in an application.

 

I thought this too.

 

Rate yourself as a debater out of 10: Dead zero. Maybe one by comparison if you put me up against a complete idiot, but otherwise zero.

 

N'aww, so modest.

 

 

"I think that YCM should be better advertised."

 

Wrong. The influx of members this forum gets is huge - in fact, you'd be surprised at how many people know about this website and use it just for the card maker. The amount of members making accounts has dwindled over time, but the same number of people come here for the website's main function. The problem is that our forum-base isn't captivating - no one wants to stay here and stick around. There are better places to talk about fan-fictions, there are better places to talk about debate topics, and there are better places to encounter friendly and intellectual people.

 

Hmm. It's certainly debate-able, but it's no secret that this place is not as well advertised than it used to be, and the simple answer as to why is the different way in which MyBB and IPB feed their meta keywords to the forum softwares. I'd have to agree that it is definitely not the defining reason as to why activity is dropped, and it probably isn't even a key reason- however there is definitely a correlation between it and the decline of activity.

 

The latter is an interesting point, but null. There have always been better places to talk about fanfics, always been better places to debate and always been more friendly and/or intellectual people elsewhere. I don't think that can be much of a reason as to why the activity has declined. The quality in posts however: certainly.

 

At least for General, there are a few problems: first, the amount of interesting topics being created is at an all-time low. I'm not the best assessment of this because I barely find anything interesting, but I haven't actively taken part in a General thread for literally months. Sometimes we're able to hold a semi-decent discussion about news (Trayvon Martin rings a bell), but eventually people who don't know what they are talking about attempt to comment. That makes me - and, more importantly, others - think that there are much better places to talk about news. Just apply that logic to every single topic discussed in General.

 

They've been declining ever since the Multimedia section was created, and the simple reason for that is that a lot of the posts in General were either about media, or idiotic/trolling. As there is now a section for the former, and more of a clamp-down on the latter, there are a lot less posts there. Makes sense to me. Again - there have always been better places to talk about the news. It just so happens that there used to be a lot more members here capable of holding intellectual conversation. I'm not so sure I could say there same now, although there are a few.

 

"If everyone in this club made two new threads and, I don't know, maybe ten-odd active posts per day, activity would increase instantly."

 

How exactly can you rationalize that such activity is particularly good for this forum? I agree with you wholly that people should try out new fields - new card-makers would keep the section fresh, and I guess the same goes with role-playing and graphics and whatnot. But when you have a whole host of ignorant and downright stupid people attempting to infiltrate real discussions, it tends to be a bit of a turn-off. I'm not saying we control the quality of every single post, but it would help if people were discouraged to post about something unless they are sure they know what they're talking about.

 

I never post unless I have at least an average amount of knowledge about the subject I'm posting about. It just feels wrong not to. However, it's not much of an argument in regards to the quote. I could easily go and make two threads right now, and if I had any amount of sense, I'd make them about something I knew a fair bit about. I have done this already since returning since, naturally, I want to talk about subjects I enjoy and discuss them with other people who enjoy those things. This negates your point about people posting about things they don't know anything about, as that would be the response to the quote of anyone with a degree of common sense.

 

But hi baby. <3

[Night]

I tend to shy away from clubs seeing as though nothing worthwhile is ever produced, but this one seems to at least have a decent motive. I don't care much for anything that happens outside of the graphic design section, but seeing as though ycm's downfall influences said section, I suppose it's worthwhile to give an attempt. Plus I haven't seen Brushfire in years.

 

Username: 'Night

Why do you want to join?: Pretty sure I covered that in my short intro.

Rate yourself as a debater out of 10.: I don't see why anyone should care for this.

How long have you been a member (estimate): 4 years.

Notes: My main goal on this forum has always been to benefit the graphic design section, nothing more really.

[Guest Thar Ablaze]

Username: Thar

Why do you want to join?: Obviously cause I agree with the fact that this site is dying.

Rate yourself as a debater out of 10: Standing against trolls on 9gag or Youtube, I stand around an 8. On YCM, however, a little lower - 6 or 5.5.

How long have you been a member: Been a member for 5 years. Been active for 2 one year segments.

Notes: I'm usually only active in the General Section, mainly in C&O.

[Nu-Mou Knight]

I could make that post, if you guys want me too, and I can ask a mod to sticky it or something.

 

If you want to do it, I'm down with that. I'd like to add in a few notes, like, "Effect Monsters do NOT require any sort of lore or flavor text, and should not have any puncuation outside colons, semicolons, periods, etc. This means that "Divine Thunder" shouldn't say "God's holy judgement in the form of lightning! Destroy 1 monster on the field? Yeah!" On a related note, what do we do about the cardmakers that post cards for fun, but make really terrible cards, like the people who have flavor text on effect monsters or have exclamation marks in effects?

 

Also, lol Thar for arguing on 9gag.

[Doc.]

Username: WarGreymon (Or Cobrabubbles.)

Why do you want to join?: 'Cause YCM has been dead, I decided, Oh hey, theres a group about making it alive again!

How long have you been a member?: About a year and a half.

Rate yourself as a debater out of 10.: 7

Notes: YCMaker won't add XYZ, so the site is dead, because newbs can't make Xyz here.

[Guest Neo Galaxy]

Username: WarGreymon (Or Cobrabubbles.)

Why do you want to join?: 'Cause YCM has been dead, I decided, Oh hey, theres a group about making it alive again!

How long have you been a member?: About a year and a half.

Rate yourself as a debater out of 10.: 7

Notes: YCMaker won't add XYZ, so the site is dead, because newbs can't make Xyz here.

 

Now that's terrible logic. It's perfectly simple to go over to YugiCo to make the Xyz for a set. It literally takes the same amount of time, and you can just save the picture and upload it, so it's not like it's that much of a difference.

 

I solely believe that Xyz is not the reason for YCM's lack of activity as of late.

[Brushfire]

I solely believe that Xyz is not the reason for YCM's lack of activity as of late.

 

It's a factor, but not the reason... we've already had this discussion though.

[Doc.]

Now that's terrible logic. It's perfectly simple to go over to YugiCo to make the Xyz for a set. It literally takes the same amount of time, and you can just save the picture and upload it, so it's not like it's that much of a difference.

 

I solely believe that Xyz is not the reason for YCM's lack of activity as of late.

 

YuGiCo's text is horrible, but in all honesty, we're ADVERTISING another site, we are called YU GI OH CARD MAKER, so every type of card in the game should be able to be made in the card maker, YuGiCo isnt called YU GI OH CARD MAKER, so there you go.

 

But hey, everyone has an opinion, and if that's what you think, more power to you.

[Guest Neo Galaxy]

It's a factor, but not the reason... we've already had this discussion though.

 

No, I agree with you. It's definitely a factor. But as has been proven even in Realistic Cards over the past week, if people make an effort to be active and actually generate discussions, others will follow. I think RC has been more active over the past week than it has been in the past few months. Just an example, but still.

 

YuGiCo's text is horrible, but in all honesty, we're ADVERTISING another site, we are called YU GI OH CARD MAKER, so every type of card in the game should be able to be made in the card maker, YuGiCo isnt called YU GI OH CARD MAKER, so there you go.

 

But hey, everyone has an opinion, and if that's what you think, more power to you.

 

Don't get me wrong, I agree with most of what you're saying. I mean, the text isn't that bad, but it's not as close to the actual thing as YCM's versions, I get that. Advertising another site isn't necessarily an issue. See, YugiCo isn't really a competitor, despite the fact that it has a card maker. It's a Price Guide, etc. Part of YCM's appeal is being able to post your cards and discuss them with other members, things along those lines. Even with Xyz, YugiCo has nothing on YCM in terms of members and as a whole.

 

YCMaker not updating the Card Maker (or the site at all) is definitely a problem, but if the members take enough of an initiative to post more and try to make things interesting again, then we'll have an effortlessly increased activity rate. It just takes some work. People that sit around and complain about it (not saying you're that person) when they could be actually trying to post more and get involved share the blame.

[Guest .Rai]

I'm just gonna pop in here and say, while it's a nice cause and everything, you're going about it wrong.

 

1. Posting tons more in forums only gives the illusion that YCM is more active. It's not encouraging people to post in those forums without an incentive. I don't usually browse any of the CC sections anymore, and because people are putting up daily things in it, that won't either. Probably doesn't encourage any of the newbies either. It's completely irrelevant to what you want to do.

 

2. The site is obviously not dead because of Xyzs. If you haven't noticed already, the DN forums already are generating loads of interest because they have a 'Create A Yugioh Card' section in which they use the YCM software. None of them are aware we have a forum. Wanna go preaching? That's your best shot.

 

3. Why are you all trying to revive your own sections? You should all try as one big group to revive one section at a time, instead of trying to go on some one-man effort for each section. At the moment, the only two people in your committee who are even working on vaguely abandoned sections are Pop Culture and Card Contests. Card Contests is a stretch because there are enough RC newbies who go there, and Pop Culture is a limited place naturally because it requires you to have actually like a certain franchise. Of all things, you should all be working on sections like Creative Writing (i.e. go write a poem or short story, get it critiqued; read fanfics; encourage people to write more even if you don't yourself; blah blah), Showcase (case being that Showcase have tried several times to get the rest of YCM involved into downloading a free software and trying out a new hobby, and no-one seems to pay attention).

 

Now I think about it, you have a really clear list of things to do, in no particular order:

 

- Get more people aware of the forum, not just the site (i.e. go onto DN forums and spam them with messages with inevitable Star Wars 'join the Dark Side' jokes)

- Revive Showcase.

- Revive Creative Writing.

 

I might join later, but there's really no point since this is my only contribution :P

 

Edit: Also, oh my god, what's up with RC? Looking at the latest posts, it's mainly by a handful of users. I mean, ragnarok was banned for that precise reason of flooding the forums.

[Brushfire]

- Get more people aware of the forum, not just the site (i.e. go onto DN forums and spam them with messages with inevitable Star Wars 'join the Dark Side' jokes)

- Revive Showcase.

- Revive Creative Writing.

 

I might join later, but there's really no point since this is my only contribution :P

 

Your points are pretty interesting and I might go analyse them later, but I have a lot of work to do right now, so I'll just reply to these.

 

1. No interest in Yugioh. It would be pointless for me to do this. I might try and get people like Mare and Colby to come back though.

2. I'd love to help with this, but I'm actually pretty poor at graphic design (my knowledge is quite limited despite how much I know about using Photoshop). I know it's the whole "well if you post there you could get better" but eh effort right now, don't feel like picking up a new hobby.

3. I'll actually do this at the end of this week. I need to start writing something other than screenplays (which I'd like to post, but they get very little response on this website) so yeah, I'll post a couple of poems and maybe start a fanfic.

[Doc.]

Now that's terrible logic. It's perfectly simple to go over to YugiCo to make the Xyz for a set. It literally takes the same amount of time, and you can just save the picture and upload it, so it's not like it's that much of a difference.

 

I solely believe that Xyz is not the reason for YCM's lack of activity as of late.

 

YuGiCo's text is horrible, but in all honesty, we're ADVERTISING another site, we are called YU GI OH CARD MAKER, so every type of card in the game should be able to be made in the card maker, YuGiCo isnt called YU GI OH CARD MAKER, so there you go.

 

But hey, everyone has an opinion, and if that's what you think, more power to you.